Service Providers and Access
There is one ISP providing Internet connection in North Korea: Star Joint Venture Co., a joint-venture between the North Korean government's Post and Telecommunications Corporation and Thailand-based Loxley Pacific. Star JV took control of North Korea's Internet address allocation on December 21, 2009. Prior to Star JV, Internet access was only available via a satellite link to Germany, or for some government uses through direct connections with China Netcom. Kim Jong-il himself was said to have loved "surfing the net".
In October 2010, the website of the Korean Central News Agency went live from a web server hosted in North Korea and accessible globally on a North Korean IP address, marking the country's first known direct connection to the Internet. Around the same time, on 9 October, journalists visiting Pyongyang for the Workers' Party's 65th anniversary celebrations were given access to a press room with full Internet connectivity.
Permission to access the Internet remains very tightly restricted, however as of 2011, there has been a growing IT industry and a gradual access of the Internet within North Korea.
Read more about this topic: Internet In North Korea
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